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Haiti to Harlem: Toussaint L'Ouverture & Jacob Lawrence Main Menu Jacob Lawrence: The Storyteller Paintings to Prints The Life of Toussaint L'Ouverture in Print Contextualizing The Prints Curating the Exhibition Imprints and Impact Highlights the impact of the Jacob Lawrence prints in relation to both Lawrence's life and the history of global POC liberation. About the Curators Meet the Fall 2024 Curatorial Class! Select Bibliography

Contemplation

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Left: Returning to private life as the commander and chief of the army, he saw to it that the country was well taken care of, and Haiti returned to prosperity. During this important period, slavery was abolished, and attention focused upon agricultural pursuits (1937) / Right: Contemplation (1993)

In Contemplation (1993), Lawrence pays homage to Toussaint L’Ouverture’s study of Enlightenment philosophy. Although L'Ouverture grew up in slavery, his masters allowed him to learn to read and write. Later, his engagement with Catholic teachings and Enlightenment political philosophers, like John Locke and Jean Jacques-Rousseau, inspired his revolutionary aspirations. Through Contemplation (1993), Lawrence takes care to show the intellectual and philosophical dimensions of L'Ouverture’s fight for liberation. L’Ouverture sits alone in a colorful room, illuminated by candlelight. He wears his military uniform, suggesting a connection between his intellectual explorations and the Haitian Revolution. The room’s window is boarded shut, showing a barrier between L’Ouverture and the rest of this world in this moment of quiet contemplative study.

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